LETTER: Fremont Street celebration was a bad idea

I was very disappointed to read that Mayor Carolyn Goodman and the Las Vegas City Council approved a special-use permit that allowed up to 14,000 people to gather on Fremont Street Experience for New Year’s Eve. This was irresponsible and goes directly against the recommendations of the governor’s COVID response director and the Clark County Health District.

This event has every possibility of becoming a super-spreader event because there was no way for Metro officers to enforce mask wearing and strict social distancing with that many people, most of whom will likely be intoxicated.

There is no denying that this event should absolutely not have been allowed because it exceeded the 50-person maximum gathering size under the current state-mandated COVID restrictions (and calling this planned public event a free speech “protest” was not an acceptable loophole).

If the City Council truly cared about the health and well being of its residents and tourist guests, it would have withdrawn the special-use permit.